Since I didn’t have time, I went for the direct approach—I decided to piss her off.
“Damn, Damon. Either she’s deliberately obtuse or she just wants in your pants so bad, she can’t see what’s right in front of her face.”
Damon looked over at me and there was a look on his face, brows arched, eyes opened just a little too wide. He almost looked a little surprised there. Oh, come on now. I stared at him for a second. You had to know.
Then I looked back at Sam and met her furious gaze.
A growl trickled out of her throat, but she continued to stand there, hands flexing and curling at her sides like she was imagining my throat in her grasp. Not good enough.
I slid Damon another look. “Think she’s nearsighted?”
Another growl escaped Sam, a little louder this time. I shifted on the seat, readied my body, measuring the distance between us. Yes, it was enough. Not by much, but it was enough. Heat gathered in my palm, but I didn’t focus on the song of the sword just then. That wasn’t what I needed. I needed something else…tribal beats. Deep, rhythmic, pulsing in beat with my heart.
“What did you just say, bitch?”
“Sam, be quiet.” That came from the only other woman in there—the little bobcat. If she’d been in cat form, all her fur would standing on end.
“Ella, shut up,” Sam snarled, still not taking her eyes off me.
I smiled at her and blew her a kiss.
That did it.
She lunged for me.
It was the smart-ass things that had done Damon in, too. Muscles pulled and screamed at me as I moved, springing into a crouch onto the couch and then jumping backward right before she would have grabbed me.
Somebody shouted at her but Damon snarled.
Everybody but Sam and I froze.
I figured he wasn’t directing it at me. He knew I didn’t respond to the growling—he’d have to physically stop me to keep me from a stupid course of action and since he hadn’t—
She paused and something that might have been surprise flickered in her gaze for just a moment as I landed on the balls of my feet right behind the couch. Then her eyes started to glow.
I knew what that meant.
I gave into the tribal beat of drums right as Sam’s bones started to shift. Damn. She must be young if she was letting herself do that now. In the middle of a fight, it was a waste of energy. Either do it before or wait until you had no choice.
My bow was in my hand before she finished her shift and I sighted, released.
Her pained scream ripped through the room and her shift froze. I had the disconcerting pleasure to watch as she went from nearly a full shift back into human, bit by excruciating bit.
I’d used silver.
And I’d shot her right through the throat.
Again, everybody but Damon was glaring at me.
Even Chang looked surprised as I passed by him to stand near the couch, a foot away from Damon. I met Chang’s gaze and shrugged. “I didn’t shoot her heart. She’ll heal once the arrow is out,” I said, still holding onto my bow.
Buxton was holding her upright, careful not to dislodge the arrow.
The woman—Ella? Yeah, it was Ella—looked at me like she’d like to just run away and hide.
“Ella, get the arrow out,” Damon said, his voice still level.
As he came off the couch, I ran a hand down the carved surface of my bow. Her drums beat in the back of my mind and the sound of them soothed me. Listening to that beat as he shot me a look, I held still and met his gaze.
All he did was smile.
I absolutely would not admit that sight of his smile made me feel a little more at ease.
I stayed where I was, busied myself with examining my bow, checking the string, even though she was perfect. If anything was wrong with her, she’d let me know—
Sam screamed. A woman’s scream mingled with a cat’s; the sound of it made my skin crawl.
Looking away from the bow, I watched as Ella finished pulling the arrow from Sam’s neck. “Be still, Sentry,” she snapped and that nervous hesitation I’d seen earlier was gone. “If you move, you’ll make this worse.”
Ella was good. There wasn’t any mishap, any careless moves and she didn’t hesitate, either. The arrow was out in an instant and hot, black blood flowed for just a moment before it gushed red. Ella clapped her hand over the wound and somebody shoved a white cloth into her free one. As she covered Sam’s neck, she looked over at me. “Either you’re a very good shot, or a lucky one.”
“I’ve never had a lucky shot in my life,” I said softly.
She nodded and then looked back at Sam, who was arching off the ground and whimpering.
I looked away. It hurt. I had no doubt of that. Sam was a were and I’d shot her in the throat, deliberately nicking one of her major vessels with something that was poisonous to her kind.
She could handle the loss of blood. It was the poison that was making her whinge and cry like a baby.
Absently I wondered what my grandmother would think.
Useless waste—
In the back of my mind, I heard the crack of a whip.
Does it hurt? Tell me it hurts…
Fanis’s voice was an evil whisper in the back of my brain. I pushed it out even as I allowed myself to acknowledge a simple fact. If it had been one of my cousins lying there on the floor, writhing, whining, whimpering, she might have kicked them in the ribs and told them to shut up. Petty cruelty, yes. But if it had been me? Another whipping.
One of the reasons I didn’t like to let myself scream. That conditioning was hard to break.
I moved back over to the couch, leaning against the arm by where Damon stood and resting my hip against it. The expression I pasted on my face was bored, but inside I was crawling with nerves, anxiety and impatience. There was no time for this, damn it. No time at all. I had to get out of here and—
Damon rested a hand on my back.
I shot him a look.
He wasn’t looking at me; his gaze was locked on Sam.
And his thumb was rubbing the base of my spine.
Perfect. Now he was picking up on my anxiety and thinking it has something, anything to do with this female cat I could kill blindfolded.
No. She didn’t worry me. There were much, much more important things worrying me…like the cat sitting down next to me. Rubbing his thumb along my back and trying to soothe me.
“Sam, are you going to quit crying like a baby and get up or not?” Damon said after another thirty seconds passed.
Mid-whimper, she stopped and rolled to her feet. Her movements were stiff and awkward; I could tell she was burning and hurting. Enough of the silver’s effects had hit her blood stream now that it would take her a few hours to burn it all off. Shifters reacted to silver like an allergic reaction. Shove enough of it in them, and it could kill them. She hadn’t taken enough to kill, but it would sure as hell hurt.
A human doctor had once explained that it wasn’t too different than a bad, but abbreviated case of the flu. There was the expected pain at the point of entry, but it was worse than that. Aching joints, stiff muscles. The works.
As she shot me a hate-filled look, I smiled. “Ready to go again?”
“I’m going to kill you,” she said, her voice ugly and raw. “Fucking him doesn’t give you the right to attack.”
“Enough,” Damon said. He rose off the couch and moved to my side. “Sam…you’re either too fucking stupid to serve as second in charge, or there’s something else eating at your ass. I don’t know which, but I’ll damn well figure it out and address the problem because I won’t have an idiot helping to train my fighters.”
The hot wash of blood stained her face red as she dragged her gaze from me to him. “Sir?”
Buxton leaned in, muttered, “Look at her fucking neck, Sam.”
Her gaze landed on my neck and once the shock faded, her gaze went cold and black.
Somehow, I didn’t think the
two of us were going to be friends.
Chapter Eleven
“He bit you again.” Colleen laid her fingers over the bite at my neck and before I could say anything, I felt the warm pulse of her healing magic run over me, through me. Moments later, her hand fell away and she sighed. “I’d like, more than anything, to take that mark completely away. But you’d be pissed.”
I didn’t respond. I wasn’t about to tell her that I hadn’t exactly planned on this happening. I wasn’t really upset over it, but she’d see it as splitting hairs. Damon and I already had this discussion. Nothing for me had changed. If this mark made things easier for him, for us both? Fine. I might punch him when this was done, but for now, if he’d cope better this way, so be it.
When I didn’t answer, she turned away and started gathering up her supplies while I finished getting dressed. There was a lingering ache in my side. I was still tired. But I could move, a lot better than I had.
“Drink.”
I wrinkled my nose at the cup she pushed in front of me and then sighed, reaching it. There was no use avoiding it. I needed it. I knew it. I bolted it back as fast as I could and then concentrated for the next two minutes on the very pretty, pale green of her walls.
Pale. Green. Soothing. Nice.
Almost like the color of the vile brew she’d made me drink. The brew that I was certain I’d hurl—
No. No hurling. Okay. So no thoughts about anything green. Think about—
The soft pad of footsteps caught my ears and I looked up as she came to a stop a few feet away.
“You need to eat.”
I ignored the wrapped sandwich Colleen tried to shove in my hands. The healing tonic, the vile, green brew continued to gurgle in my belly. Try to eat? Oh hell. No.
That stuff needed to stay down. I had to be moving faster than this and the tonic would help. Puking wouldn’t. So as much as I needed food, the sandwich would have to wait. I couldn’t do what I needed to do if I was moving at this speed.
“Damn it, Kit.”
I glared at her as I pulled my vest on. “I had a banana and a protein bar on the way over. I’ll grab a meal later.”
“You need more than that.” Her eyes all but snapped with fury as she stormed over to glower at me. I had to tip my head back to meet her gaze. “You look like death and he moves faster than you do right now.”
“Oh, you know how fast death is? Really?”
“Ha, ha.” She smacked me against the chest with the sandwich. “It’s just ham and egg. But you need the fuel and don’t tell me you don’t.”
Sighing, I scooped my hair back from my face with one hand and accepted the sandwich with the other. I did need the fuel. “Yeah. I know, but if I eat it now, I’m going to puke. Look, I’ll eat it at the office. My gut will settle by then…fair?”
“Promise?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Fair enough.” She eyed me narrowly and then nodded. “What’s this case, Kit? I can’t…”
Then she shook her head. “You’ve been working with Banner. I know the feel of their blocks.”
I said nothing.
“Kit, what’s going on? Something’s got you worried. I can feel it.”
“I can’t talk about it,” I said, shaking my head. Even though I really, really wanted to.
“You mean that literally.” She pressed her fingertips to my temple and sighed. “Those blocks—why did they do this, Kit? I could get around them, but…”
“No.”
If she messed with Justin’s spells, he’d know. Colleen wasn’t skilled enough to hide her magic from him. I have no idea what kind of repercussions that would have.
She studied me for a moment and then nodded. “Okay. Look, if you’re having problems, you know you can come to us. That’s why we’re here.”
“I can get around it, but…” then she shrugged. “You’ve got to work. Go work.”
“I know.” I made myself smile before I headed for the door. “Thanks. For the sandwich and…well, everything.”
“Kit, are you okay?”
I wasn’t sure how to answer that.
As I closed my hand over the doorknob, I sighed. “It’s a lousy job, Leenie. I hate it. I have to do it, but I hate it. I’m tired and I’m stressed…but I have to work this miserable-ass job.”
I felt the probe of her magic against and pain shrieked through my head. Okay…the spell Justin had laid didn’t like that. Not at all.
“I gotta go.”
As I stepped outside, I caught sight of Chang, waiting by his car.
Starting down the walkway, I hoped Colleen would be quiet. Chang wouldn’t have heard anything she’d said inside her house—she safeguarded against that—but if she said a damn thing now, he’d hear.
And it would get back to Damon.
The ham and egg sandwich was a nasty lump in my stomach and there was a headache at the base of my scalp as I sat down at the computer. All in all, I felt better. My body no longer ached.
Justin was meeting me in twenty minutes.
I was to ‘keep my ass in the office, wards up or else’. A mean, contrary streak a mile wide had me tempted to pitch a tent in my parking lot, but that would contradict what I’d promised Damon when he’d sent me off—with Chang as my guard. He was to watch my cute ass, Damon’s words, not mine, until I was safe behind my wards. Chang had been agreeable about waiting outside Colleen’s house, but only after he’d checked in with Damon.
Damon had told me: Stay safe.
So that was what I’d do.
It had nothing to do with Justin or anything else.
The computer came to life with a quiet a little hum and I went online via a stealth site that Colleen had showed me. It was a cyber-witch’s creation. They couldn’t cast spells online, but the cyber-witches were hackers of the highest caliber. If you needed to do an untraceable search, this was the way to do it.
I tapped in the first of the two names.
Cedric Marlowe.
The information that came up on him was some of what I’d expected, and a lot of shit that made my stomach turn. Yes, he’d been one of the ones who’d opposed the whole ‘coming-out’ plan. Since then, he’d apparently been practicing mind-wipes. Quietly. Very quietly.
Even worse, successfully.
Bile churned a nasty mess in my gut and the more I read, the worse it got.
Okay, if this guy wasn’t on Damon’s list for a legit reason, then he needed to be on Banner’s. If they didn’t take an interest in him, I was going to. He’d be a hard mark, but hard marks made life interesting and I hadn’t ever taken out anybody quite like him. All it would take was the right weapon—which I had—and the right distance, so he didn’t pick up on my presence.
Mind wipes. Scum-sucking dick.
I saved the info to an encrypted file and went to the next name, almost scared at what I’d uncover.
But a heartbeat later, I wish I’d spent longer looking at Marlowe’s info.
Because I knew this face.
Delores Richards.
Delores.
That was her given name.
But the rest of the world…including me, knew her as Es.
“Oh, no, Damon.”
Screw the fucking wards. Screw the wolves that might try to come after me.
I wasn’t waiting for this.
* * * * *
“Where in the hell are you?” Justin demanded.
I checked the mile marker and told him.
“What?”
“I have to go see a witch.”
“I’m a fucking witch. If you need help? Talk to me or Colleen.”
“A specific witch.”
“Get your ass back here, Kit,” he said, voice vibrating with intensity. “There’s no time for this. And did you forget? You might have a pack of drug-dealing wolves on your ass?”
“First…if somebody was tailing me, I’d know. Second, I know how to do my job, Justin. Sometimes I think people forget that.” I hung
up on him and checked my mirror, focused and let myself just…feel. Nope. None of the drug-dealing wolves on my ass. I’d been paying attention.
I’d been paying attention the entire time I’d sped down the highway. At the speed I was going, I’d be at the house where Es lived in a matter of minutes. Too late to hold me back now.
Es.
Please be safe…
* * * * *
She was waiting on the porch.
Her hair, white as the driven snow and straight, hung down her back.
She sat with her legs drawn up to her chest and a fat mug cradled in her hands. As I climbed out of the car, she took a sip of the steaming brew and then sighed. “I had a feeling there were problems when I woke this morning.”
My gut dropped to my knees and automatically, I popped my wrist.
If he was coming, I’d just have to plant my ass here—
“Oh, Kit, you worry too much,” she murmured. She stretched out her legs and crossed them at the ankle. After her next sip, she lowered her mug to her lap and stared into it like it held every answer the world had ever asked. A moment passed and then she added, “I do understand your fear. You wish to protect him. You wish to protect me. Even though your mind is already moving on a logical process that he has reasons, you don’t see one for me.”
The logical process she’d mentioned wasn’t functioning well right now. I shook my head and barely resisted the urge to drive the flat of my hand against my temple. The headache was already raging close to out of control and I hadn’t even said anything. “You…you know what’s going on.”
“Oh, yes,” she said, nodding. “I’ve known for a while.”
She glanced at me and smiled. “I was the first he spoke with. Didn’t you know that?”
“No,” I snapped. “I didn’t know that. Now tell me, what in the hell is going on?”
She took another sip from her mug. “He asked that I not speak of our discussion with anybody in the Assembly, you know. He told me that he didn’t see me as a threat. I’d already seen what he was planning and Damon is a smart man…he knew what I’d sensed. Then he told me that unless I was a threat, he wouldn’t treat me as one, so I was safe.”
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